A EUROPEAN DEAF UNIVERSITY?

1. A EUROPEAN DEAF UNIVERSITY? 85th anniversary of the Latvian Association of the Deaf

2. Every deaf student as a project • We want to secure every deaf person‘s right of access to education. This means: • The access of deaf persons to all educational possibilities has to be open • If in a certain area this is not the case and a deaf person wants to enter this area, he or she ‚becomes a project‘. • The strategy of EDU is also to look for answers for the following questions: • Why reach so few deaf people the study ability? • Why speak even deaf academics of a „glass ceiling“ in the job market

3. Political and/or scientific goals of EDU ? • Especially in minority questions you can never separate scientific and political issues cleanly. • Politically, Deaf people should be given equal access to communication and information (‚information society‘). This includes higher education.

4. Political goals of EDU • Make the EU authorities aware of the educational needs of deaf people • Argue for a European coordinative structure as the only solution • systematise / improve deaf education in the EU as a whole

5. Scientific goals of EDU • Observation of technological and educational development; utilisation of most recent solutions • Research of its own in the whole area of deafness, coordination of research and developmental programmes

6. Scientific/organisational goals of EDU • Evaluation of existing deaf educational programs, spreading information on them all over Europe in order to distribute successful models and by that to create a higher level of deaf education in Europe as a whole • Coordination of national activities, providing comprehensive information for all people interested (deaf, parents and teachers of the deaf, interpreters, politicians, etc.)

7. Educational goals of EDU • Development of new elements of higher education for the deaf in cooperation with existing institutions working in the field, with some stress on virtual university, distance learning etc. • Taking individual care of deaf people looking for adequate educational possibilities (counselling, tutoring, etc.) • Though an EDU should concentrate on principles of deaf education, it should not exclude other people with special needs (e.g. hearing handicapped)

8. Why EDU is a contribution to reach the goal of equal access • The ‚language problem‘ of deaf people and their (in average) bad chances in education can only be overcome by a joint European effort, answering the needs of coordination and focusing • EDU is the alternative to the now existing, very different and diverging systems of deaf education • EDU can identify the existing deficits in deaf education as a whole • EDU can help to create qualified jobs for deaf people in whole Europe • By representing a ‚deaf area‘ of its own in higher education, EDU strengthens also deaf culture

9. The location of EDU • Not located at a specific place (only the coordination centre has to be located) • Coordinative structure, paralleling the structure of the European Union

10. Objectives of EDU 1 • Describe the state of the art of deaf education, summarize and evaluate existing information • Disseminate best practice, provide best possibilities for deaf people in education • Provide best technological solutions, adapted for deaf people

11. Objectives of EDU 2 • Make deaf people aware of the many local, regional or national activities of their group • Make all sorts of studies accessible for deaf people, inform about educational possibilities • Build and structure a 'European Deaf Research Area'

12. Working principles of EDU 1 • Do not compete with existing studies or institutions (but cooperate, evaluate and recommend) • Develop new studies where necessary • Integrate existing experiences and scientific results • Perform own research where necessary

13. Working principles of EDU 2 • Negotiate with authorities in order to put scientific results into practice • Create jobs for talented deaf persons

16. Main problems of EDU • The number problem • The location problem • The isolation problem • And again a language problem Consequences: • An appropriate solution for deaf education has to utilize elements of distance education • The standards of ‚hearing‘ universities have to be met

17. Some conditions for a successful application of distance education • Specially adapted bilingual system of education: sign language - written language - spoken language, the visual channel being the channel for information and communication • Provide individual solutions • Provide as many communicative instruments as possible (electronic telecommunication, videophone, interpreter services) • Provide bilingual models of access to all offers of information society • Allow a sign language community and deaf culture for those deaf who decide on that

18. Some basic information • Main hypothesis: • Information and communication are transported via language. • Therefore the language dimension is the central dimension of a deaf-oriented solution of education.

19. Factors which create the 'language problem' of deaf people • Lacking or insufficient access to acoustic channel • Visual compensation concerning language (sign language) not offered or exposition time to such a compensation too low • Grave time loss for language learning (missing the phase of special cognitive plasticity) by waiting for medical or non-compensatory (oral only) solution to language perception and learning

20. Factors of ‚language problem‘ 2 • Expectations of hearing parents of deaf children (they want a 'normal' = speaking child) diverge from a compensatory practice • Deafness seen exclusively as a medical problem

21. The result of these negative factors • Some of the most important and effective years of language learning and information acquisition is ‘stolen’ from many deaf people. • From this follows a disadvantage in written language competence. (The degree depends on the adequacy and effectiveness of the respective educational system and on their socialisation as a whole.) • Therefore a reduced access to almost all information sources of the hearing majority exists.

22. Why many hearing people cannot understand the language needs of deaf people A false analogy: • Blind people have no access to written language (coded in the visual channel): • Give them a tactile version of the writing (Braille) • Deaf people have no access to spoken language (coded in the acoustic channel): • Give them a visual version of the speech (writing)

23. The language demands of deaf people in a human rights perspective ... from a cognitive-communicative standpoint: • Consider conditions for the successful learning of any language…. • Consequences for deaf people….

24. Conditions for the successful learning of any language • Offer a fully fledged language (naturally adapted for children via “motherese”) systematically in all communicative situations • Offer a language which is easily accessible and produceable • Allow language to be 'anchored' on everyday (non-verbal) cognitions • Compensate for losses or deficits by using other accessible or working subsystems

25. Consequences for the language leaning of deaf people • Specially adapted bilingual system: sign language - written language - spoken language • Allow a sign language community and deaf culture for those deaf who decide on that • Provide as many communicative instruments as possible (electronic telecommunication, videophone, interpreter services) • Given the actual situation of most deaf (low competence in reading/writing, therefore minimal access to almost all information sources), provide a bilingual model of access to all offers of information society

26. Challenges for the next years in deaf communication and education • Technical demands…. • Educational and scientific issues….

27. Technical demands • Better and unified standards for communicative aids • More software for visual communication (and transforming acoustic output into a visual one for commonly used programs) • Implementation of communication and information systems for deaf people • Dealing with a big amount of video files (sign language) for on-line and remote communication and information processing (includes: video file processing and storage, respective databases, sign language recognition and synthesis)

28. Educational and scientific issues • The quality of deaf education has to be elevated to ‘normal’ standard • Increased participation of the deaf in planning, research, information, and evaluation • Looking at the central group of 'Deaf' as a community which has to get rights similar to (cultural or linguistic) minority groups, but offering the sign language services to all who think that they can profit from them at least partially

29. Organisational measures • Founding a European Sign Language Resource Association (ESLRA)… • Founding a European Deaf University (EDU)

30. European Sign Language Resource Association (ESLRA) ….following the model of ELRA • Should provide standards for sign language documentation, databases, corpuses, instigate research on and development of applied sign language linguistics

32. Contact • E-Mail: franz.dotter@uni-klu.ac.at • Fax: 0043 463 / 2700 2899 • Tel.: 0043 463 / 2700 2821 Web: http://www.uni-klu.ac.at/zgh